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Monday, 12 September 2011

US Open Day 14 - Stosur stuns Serena in dramatic final

Sam Stosur played the match of her life to claim her first Grand Slam title and beat Serena Williams, 6-2 6-3 in an extraordinary final. I was surprised early on how focused and calm Stosur was as both players held their opening service games. Stosur earnt the first break point of the match as she took advantage of Serena's inability to get her 1st serves in - in fact she was at shocking 35% during the first set. Stosur made the breakthrough as she moved around backhand to hit a crunching forehand and force the error from Serena.

Stosur was so focused from the outset and played without any nerves

Stosur then backed up the break with a confident hold of serve as she used her kick serve to great effect and kept attacking with her forehand. Stosur had more break points in Serena's next service game as she continued to hit aggressive returns with superb depth to the baseline of Williams. She could not convert this time... but she did on the next service game as she raced to a surprising 6-2 first set in what was undoubtedly, the best set of tennis Stosur had ever produced; she won 92% of points on her 1st serves, 71% of points on her second serves and hit 8 winners to just 4 unforced errors.

Stosur did very well to start the match in top gear... Serena's match with Vika showed that if you stay with her you can force some doubt into Serena's head and Stosur did this from the outset

The second set continued in the same fashion as a confident Stosur went after Serena's serve. She also used her backhand slice to her great effect, which unsettled Serena. The big moment in the match came at break point for Stosur in the first game when Serena shouted "come on" before Stosur had a chance to hit the ball. It was going to be Serena's point but Stosur got her racket to the ball. The umpire, Eva Asderaki RIGHTLY gave the point to Stosur adhering to the rules but Serena was furious... the same situation happened in a match between Bartoli and McHale earlier this tournament where McHale won the point after Bartoli screamed "come on" before it finished - Serena called out even earlier than Bartoli did and Asderaki was well within her rights to hand the point to Stosur.

Serena totally let herself down and I lost all respect for her.

Serena's antics towards the umpire were disgraceful... she received a code violation and the crowd started jeering as Stosur prepared to serve. As to be expected, this situation totally fired up Serena and poor Stosur, had to try and remain calm in what was now an electric atmosphere. Serena quickly raced to triple break point but Stosur saved one with the point of the match as she produced incredible skills at the net, which even got an applause from Serena. Serena did eventually break, but she launched into a tirade at the umpire in the changeover calling her "unattractive inside" and "a hater" amongst other things. I have to admit that I have never been so angry watching a tennis match because of Serena's disgraceful and arrogant behaviour; it showed a total lack of respect to the umpire and Stosur.

Stosur's net skills were particularly impressive throughout the whole two weeks

The match continued with serve as Stosur produced two fantastic holds at 2-1 and 3-2 down as she continued to implement the backhand slice and remained both attacking and accurate on her forehand shots. Stosur then earnt a break point on Serena's serve at 3-3 and took it with a fabulous forehand return. She followed this up with a gutsy hold as Serena prepared to stay in the match down 6-2 5-3. Serena produced three sloppy errors as she gifted Stosur two match points... but Serena stayed strong and fended off both match points. Stosur got another chance as she produced ANOTHER thumping forehand return that blazed past Serena. It was then on the third match point that Stosur claimed the victory with another forehand winner.

It is probably the happiest I have ever been to see someone win a Grand Slam (even more so than Kvitova!) because of the circumstances. Stosur has gone up in "my top players" list... not that I am a glory hunter but I was so impressed with the way she carried herself this week! I will definitely being keeping more of an eye on in the future :)

I have never been so happy to see someone win and it was the most deserving win following the antics of Serena earlier on in the match. It was a superb match with some quality tennis but obviously it was slightly overshadowed by Serena's outburst. It was also the biggest upset in a Grand Slam final for quite some time and Stosur without doubt, played the match of her life and rose to the occasion. To her credit, Serena was very respectful to Stosur and sat with her at the end which was a very nice touch. She remained adamant she was beaten by the better player but unfortunately the damage was done following her outburst at Asderaki, who she did not shake hands with at the end.

Anyway I want to finish my post on a happy note... Congratulations Sam Stosur, you are a worthy Grand Slam Champion and have done Australia proud :)

About Me

I have been writing Moo's Tennis Blog for several years now and as you will have guessed, I am mad about tennis!
I enjoy visiting all the UK events every summer including Wimbledon, Eastbourne and Birmingham. My favourite players include Petra Kvitova, Mona Barthel, Sam Stosur, Sabine Lisicki, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, Andy Murray and Juan Martin Del Potro.